Find resources developed through collaborations between tribes, knowledge holders, clinics serving American Indian persons, and Dana Carroll, an epidemiologist and certified tobacco treatment specialist, to help American Indian persons and their communities reduce commercial tobacco use and reclaim traditional tobacco.

Resources are free to download, print, and distribute.  Feel free to share with your family and community.

SmokeFree Native text messaging program

Get support through your phone to quit smoking for good. American Indian and Alaska Native adults and teens in the United States who are ready to quit smoking commercial tobacco can sign up to receive daily text messages to aid quitting. This program is offered through a collaboration between the National Cancer Institute’s Smokefree.gov Initiative (SFGI) and the Indian Health Service (IHS). SFGI and IHS and worked with experts from the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota (Dr. Dana Carroll) and the American Indian Cancer Foundation to develop a program that is aligned with the culture and needs of American Indian and Alaska Native communities and honors the significance of traditional tobacco.

Traditional Tobacco Infographic (PDF)

Today, cultural revitalization and public health efforts to combat commercial tobacco have united and ignited a traditional tobacco movement throughout Indian country.  While Indigenous knowledge is the epicenter for Indigenous lifeways, scientific knowledge concerning traditional tobacco has been requested by our community partners to assist in the traditional tobacco movement. This collaboration and the resulting infographic will contribute new knowledge that can be used by Indian country to help understand potential exposures when processing traditional tobacco as well as to revive valuable traditional tobacco growing, harvesting, and processing practices.

It’s Your Life-It’s our Future, Stop Smoking Guide (Google Drive)

The original guide was developed in the 1990s by the American Indian Cancer Control Project and northern California tribes. In 2022, the guide was updated for American Indian persons in the Midwest such as Wisconsin and Minnesota. This guidebook was updated with plans to integrate it with a separate guidebook on teachings on asemaa/traditional tobacco use. Together, these guidebooks will be used for a culturally-tailored quit-smoking program. The update is supported through Program in Health Disparities Research and Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota grant funding to tribal collaborator Dylan Jennings and academic collaborators Dana Carroll and Dorothy Hatsukami.

American Indian Perspectives on What Promotes Quitting Smoking (Google Drive)

Learn about cultural strengths and promoters for quitting smoking among American Indian persons interested in quitting smoking. This project is part of a multi-phase study that seeks to develop and then evaluate culturally-tailored smoking cessation resources for American Indian persons.

American Indian Perspectives on Treatments to Quit Cigarette Smoking (Google Drive)

Due, in part, to U.S colonization efforts and the tobacco industry’s targeted marketing tactics, commercially made tobacco has become commonly used among some American Indian people leading to increases in health risks. To combat this, this guidebook is aimed at helping American Indian people quit smoking for good. The guidebook highlights a research study to understand perceptions of available medications to quit smoking. It also covers some newer treatments to quit smoking.